nhfarber

Count me as a fan of these lines which are being used in practice today: Pacioretty-Desharnais-Cole Galchenyuk-Plekanec-Gionta Moen-Eller-Bourque Prust-White-Armstrong I love how all the guys on the bottom two lines are interchangeable. Therrien will be able to easily mix and match to find the best chemistry.

Report online that Subban will sign once the CBA is ratified for 22 million over 4 years or an AAV of 5.5 million. Count me in the camp that finds this to be an overpayment. I'm happy to sign him longer term but I would've been more comfortable somewhere in the 4.75-5 million AAV range.

well that's interesting. According to Bob Mackenzie the Leafs have fired Brian Burke.

I hate this move by Oliver. He signed a contract so he should honour it. If he had played poorly last year would he have agreed to come back at a reduced salary? He has no one to blame but himself (or his agent) for signing a "below value" contract. He should be a man of his word and play. I hope AA sticks it to him and makes him either play out his contract or retire.

Shame about losing Canzler, I actually had some hope that he could be a good DH/1B platoon partner with Lind.

Yep, this has been confirmed now. Raines will coach outfielders and baserunning. Pretty savvy hire if you ask me! http://blogs.thescore.com/djf/2012/12/31/nerd-boners-up-tim-raines-joins-blue-jays-staff/

Just got back from the game. Lackluster performance from the bulldogs, they really couldn't get anything going until the end of the 3rd period. A few random thoughts: -Gallagher was the most noticeable player on the ice, always around the puck and surprisingly really strong in the corners. This is my first time seeing him live and I was very impressed. -Similarly Beaulieu was very strong on the puck all night and was one of the only guys creating chances. His defensive play looks to have improved but he did have one bad give away. -I expect to see Tinordi get a bit more physical, he seemed willing to let the action to to him rather than to dictate the play using his size. I'd like to see him use his body more. -The Stortini hit on Kadri that got him tossed seemed like a bad call to me. They didn't show the replay but it appeared to be clean to me and Kadri may have played up the injury seeing as he was back on the ice 2 minutes later -Leblanc was invisible until he scored in the 3rd period, the only other time I saw him was when he took a penalty -Holland's passing was better than I had expected, he's developing well on the point of the PP -I dont know much about Dumont but man did he appear slow slow slow -Desjardins looked shaky all game. He made some big stops to keep them in it but his rebound control was BRUTAL and led to the first Marlies goal. He also seemed unsettled when handling the puck all game. Final thoughts: -Discipline seemed to be an issue. Too many minor calls (although I thought a few were questionable calls by the refs) -Powerplay needs to be stronger, they just didn't seem able to control the pace of play on the PP

Going to the bulldogs game tomorrow vs the Marlies, can't wait to see some actual hockey! I'll post some thoughts when I get home.

Greinke is reportedly looking for a contract above 20 million per year. You wouldn't think that he could get that, but with the lack of premiere pitching options on the free agent market it is possible. I wouldn't have an issue with paying Sanchez 15 million but the contract length worries me. Pitchers face such significant injury risks that locking one up for 6 years has so much risk involved. The plus side is that Sanchez is still young and has proven that he can both pitch in the AL and do well in the playoffs.

Interesting note on Izturis. Saw this comparison made online: Player A is Izturis. Player A career: 8.2 BB%, 10.7 K%, .108 ISO, .297 BABIP, .273 AVG, .337 OBP, .381 SLG, .318 wOBA, 94 wRC+ Player B career: 8.7 BB%, 10.8 K%, .116 ISO, .297 BABIP, .276 AVG, .340 OBP, .391 SLG, .324 wOBA, 95 wRC+ Shockingly Player B is considered the top 2B available on the market, Marco Scutaro. I for one would be fine with Izturis starting at 2B for the next year or two. Solid bottom of the lineup player, good glove, doesn't strike out a ton, switch hitter. 3 million a year sounds about right.

Without going into a huge diatribe here, let me sum up my thoughts on Farrell in two words: Good riddance. He's shown nothing in his two years to show that he's more than an average (at best) big league manager. For whatever reason the Red Sox love him so the fact that we could get a solid major league player for a guy who quite frankly could've been let go outright following a second straight disappointing season. This is the best case scenario for AA, he rids himself of a manager he didn't want anymore and gets a second chance to find the right guy. My money's on Sandy Alomar although I'd like to see if the Dodgers will let us interview Tim Wallach this time, he'd be a sleeper candidate for me.

No question that it was a bad call, but here's the best comment I heard after the game. If you're so concerned about being done in by one bad game then you better win your division. That second wild card not only made the last few weeks of the season more interesting, it also puts some value on winning your division. I remember past seasons where the yankees and red sox were assured of being the AL East winner or the Wild Card winner and the discussion was that it would be better to be the wild card because it resulted in a more favourable matchup in the division series. I love the fact that there is a real reward for winning your division and that a wild card team has to work that much harder to win it all.

I base this on nothing other than my own intuition, but I strongly feel that the Jays will sign David Ortiz to DH. Ortiz has always been very complementary of Toronto, has ties to Farrell and is a close friend of Bautista. For SP it appears as though the Angels are going to decline the options of both Haren and Santana, the White Sox are looking like they'll do the same with Peavy. I would be targeting these three guys, plus Greinke to fill the SP void via FA.

Not sure what "rumours" you're talking about because Anthopolous has been pretty clear in all his interviews over the last 2 months that they Jays are looking to add in the offseason and will spend (either via free agency or trade) in order to get the right pieces. He's specifically mentioned upgrades in the starting rotation at 1B/DH (whichever EE isn't playing), 2B and LF.

Didn't make the draft but surprisingly happy with my team, that almost never happens on an auto-draft.

Fanpuck Wombach just doesn't want to you to win this debate. She just full on kicked a japanese player in the face. Dirty dirty player. Edit: Now in GIF form: http://twitpic.com/ahexox

I'd agree assuming they were also going to penalize Wombach from the gold medal game because from what I saw she played just as dirty (if not more) than anyone else on the pitch, the referee excluded.

Couldn't agree with this post more. Also to fanpuck's point about tancredi's hard fouls, I only got home in time two watch just before we went up 2-1 so I may have missed that play, but I think it's a bit hypocritical to not also mention how Wombach got away with virtually all of her chip shots and dirty hits and pushes. She was abusing the Cdn defence all day and I don't think she got called once.

Nope, no warning was given. Even the US coach said that in all her years (and she's been around a long time) she's never seen that call made without a warning given. Let's also not forget that the Ref missed a blatant handball on the US in their box about 20 minutes earlier. I see it as at least 5 very poor calls: 1. missed handball on the US in their own box which would've given Canada a penalty kick 2. Delay of game call on the Cdn keeper without any prior warning being given 3. Decision on the delay of game call to give the US a free kick in the box rather than just give the goalie a yellow card (the Ref had the option to do either) 4. Hand ball call on Canada in the box (admittedly this was probably the toughest call to make, but wouldn't have mattered had the previous call not been blown) 5. Play late in the game where the ball clearly went out of bounds past the end line which was then awarded to the US as a corner which set up a very near goal and gave them solid momentum into the final minutes of the game. This is nothing to take away from the US team. They played excellent clutch soccer but there is no question that the calls were falling mostly in the American's favour.

Nash earned a no trade clause and thus has the right to dictate who he gets traded to. If Columbus didn't want to be limited them they never should have agreed to it. he's a professional and has every right to move to the team/city that he feels will be a good fit for both him and his family. Get over yourself.

That would confirm Bergevin's comment. A lot of people speculated that MB's assertion that the Habs weren't interested was really him saying that they didn't want to spend the money, or was a way for him to deny that they "lost out" on Jagr. Interesting that MB would be so up front and frank about their lack of interest. Certainly continues to show that he is the anti-gauthier in how he communicates to the media/fans.

I was surprised when I saw the length of this deal and was worried about Moen's age at the end of the contract. Is anyone else surprised that he's only 30 this year? Feels like his been in the league forever. 1.85 million for a solid bottom 6 forward who clearly has the respect of the locker room is good work by MB.

THIS, plus the positional flexibility, plus the cheap contract plus the fact that Nokelainen is 26 explains them choosing him over Darche.

Good signing for what he is... our 13th forward.

I'd tend to agree with you, but I guess it all depends on his attitude. if Gomez takes his demotion to the AHL very poorly it may not be beneficial to have a brooding veteran down on the farm with all of our impressionable young prospects.